WorldCom Securities Litigation
(over $6.15 billion
in total recoveries)
Cendant Securities Litigation
(resulted in nearly $3.2 billion
settlement for plaintiffs)
Washington Public Power Supply System
Litigation (recovered over
$750 million for class in 1990 - then the largest settlement ever)
See the Our Results
section to read about the firm's remarkable accomplishments on behalf of investors.
The attorneys in this Practice Group
have extensive experience in the laws that regulate the securities markets and in
the disclosure requirements of the corporations that issue publicly traded
securities. Many of the attorneys in this Practice Group also have accounting
backgrounds and two are C.P.A.'s. The Group has state-of-the-art financial
databases which enable them to investigate any potential securities actions
involving a public company's securities.
The securities class actions the firm prosecutes primarily involve
allegations that a publicly traded corporation and certain of its officers and
directors disseminated materially false and misleading statements to investors,
broker or securities analysts about the company's financial condition and/or
products that served to artificially inflate the price of the company's stock.
These statements are dispersed to the financial community by company press
releases, prospectuses, annual reports and proxy statements, quarterly and
annual financial statements and various SEC filings. In certain actions,
plaintiffs must allege and prove that the defendants knowingly or recklessly
disseminated materially false and misleading information. In others, such as
public offerings, once a material misrepresentation is established, the burden
is on the defendants to demonstrate they did not act negligently. Typically,
when the truth about the company's financial condition or product is publicly
revealed, investors who purchased the company's securities at a time when the
prices of those securities were artificially inflated experience a significant
drop in the value of their stock, causing investors serious economic losses.
Individual and institutional investors who have suffered losses in the value
of their portfolio contact the firm to investigate the nature of the loss.
Further, institutional clients often request that the firm proactively
monitor the portfolios of their beneficiaries in order to more quickly
and efficiently determine the
cause of a loss in value. The attorneys carefully research and analyze
information gathered from a variety of sources to determine whether a
claim may be asserted on behalf of investors. If the attorneys determine that
an adequate basis for a claim exists, the firm will file a class action against
the corporation and certain officers and directors on behalf of all investors
who purchased the securities within a specified trading period.
Class action litigation is an economically viable means
for allowing investors the opportunity to attain damages for the
dissemination of materially false and misleading information. Due to the recent
changes in the securities laws, class action litigation is being used by
individual as well as institutional investors to recover their damages.
A class action suit is filed by an individual or an institutional investor
who agrees to act as a representative on behalf of themselves and all other
investors who have been damaged by similar misrepresentations within a finite
trading period. Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP handles
class actions on a contingency fee basis, which means
that class representatives are not responsible for the payment of attorneys
fees, which are to be paid only out of the recovery for the Class.
If you believe you have been a victim of false and misleading statements
issued by a company and/or its officers, or if you wish to become a class
representative, please contact us by filling out the form at our
Contact Us page or by direct e-mail at
blbg@blbglaw.com.
Have a question relating to our
fields of expertise?
See answers to Frequently
Asked Questions.
